The present invention relates to harness assembly machines, and particularly to the loading of a plurality of terminated leads en masse into a single row connector block.
Lead making machines are well known in the prior art, cf. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,019,679 and 3,686,752. The latter discloses a machine having a pair of parallel conveyors having grippers thereon which grip both ends of the leads and carry them through terminal applicators. U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,808 discloses an apparatus which utilizes parallel conveyors to carry planar sets of wires laterally of their axes through terminal applicators. It would be advantageous, in a machine of this type, to provide an additional station adjacent to either conveyor where the terminated sets of leads could be loaded into a connector block to facilitate manufacture of a wiring harness.
Harness making machines comprise apparatus having the capability to place connector blocks onto wire leads. U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,889 discloses an apparatus which transports leads through a termination station and then to an insertion station where the terminated leads are inserted into a connector housing at the insertion station. Leads are inserted into the housing one at a time by wire grippers while the housing is indexed by an indexing assembly which also transports the housing to and from the insertion station.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,043,017, 4,043,034, 4,136,440, and 4,235,015 disclose harness making apparatus directed to the mass loading of wire leads into insulation displacing type connector blocks. These apparatus do not involve terminating the leads prior to insertion.
There is a need in the harness making arts for a connector block loading apparatus which mass loads terminated leads into a connector block, particularly for a block loader suitable for use adjacent a lateral lead transporting conveyor of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,164,808.